Nadine Teppozada

Nadine Toppozada is a Senior Director for Unaccompanied Children within the Critical Border Response Project.

Nadine brings a 25 year career in advocating for refugee and immigrant rights, and family unification and integrity. Early in her career, she joined the Council of Europe Committee on Migration, Refugees, and Displaced Persons in Strasbourg, France, where she engaged in efforts to ban land mines as weapons of war, documenting their impact on Refugee adults and children at a disproportionate rate. Upon returning to the United States, she dedicated her career to serving refugees and immigrants.x

In 2016, Nadine joined Catholic Charities San Diego as the Director of Refugee and Immigrant Services. In her role, she led post-release services for unaccompanied minors, affirmative and defensive legal representation for detained and non-detained asylum-seekers and unaccompanied children; the Refugee Reception & Placement Program (R&P); the Wilson/Fish Refugee Cash Assistance Alternative Program; the Refugee Health Assessment Program (RHAP); the Cuban/Haitian Entrant Program (CHEP); the Afghan Support and Investment Program (ASIP), a resident shelter for foreign born victims of human trafficking; and two migrant shelters in San Diego and Imperial Counties to welcome asylum-seekers arriving at the border.

Nadine is also an advocate for women’s rights and ending gender-based violence for refugees and immigrants. She published an article in the Syracuse Journal about the protection of women and girls from Female Genital Mutilation as a form of gender-based violence.

Nadine was born and raised in Egypt to expat parents from Greece and Turkey. She received her bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the American University in Cairo, Egypt, and her master’s degree in International Relations from Syracuse University, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs in Syracuse, New York. She speaks Arabic, Portuguese, and French.